Emily Slupek felt that adaptability is easier to achieve than flexibility, a point backed up by John Flin.
From a QS perspective, trying to do it in a single building is very challenging. But in a cluster where you've got the opportunity to move up between spaces, it makes a lot of sense.”
Mission Street is trying to push the envelope here, said Colin Brown. “We talk to architects about how we can create ultimately flexible buildings in the sense of demountable elevations, extendable buildings within the masterplan framework.
Obviously future growth is a massive consideration of any type of dynamic, knowledge intensive business. If you can demonstrate your capacity to facilitate that growth through the network of buildings that you own, so much the better.”
He talked about bringing forward schemes in Oxford and Cambridge that will be able to meet the demands of a range occupiers.
Mission Street is exploring the modularity the buildings and developing a proposition that provides growth without occupiers necessarily even leaving the lab they are in. This means potentially by creating buildings that can be adapted to “make them properly long life, loose fit in the sense that you can extend within a masterplan framework.” In the end, the panel agreed, making occupiers love where they are is fundamental. That means finding solutions for occupiers, solving problems, and staying in meaningful communication so that the developer is up to speed with their growth aspirations.
A sticky occupier is a valuable thing to a company like us."
